The minister of Public Works: “I am ordering the construction companies to keep the rights of the disabled people.”

Mogadishu: The ministry of Public Works and Reconstruction of Somalia has imposed an order on the public and privately owned premises to build places that are accessible by the disabled people, toilets and latrines designed for the disabled people and special places that can be used for parking by the disabled society.

The minister of the Public Works and Reconstruction, Eng. Salah Sheikh Osman said that statement in a press conference that was held in the office of the Ministry when Mr. Mohamed Ali Farah, a self-employed disability activist, visited the ministry.

“The human has been dignified by Allah, and if we don’t dignify him, it is not a right thing. I am ordering the owners of private and public buildings to make accessibility easy for the needy and disabled people especially the ones who are responsible at the mosques, the public toilets and the remittances,” was said by Eng. Salah Sheikh Osman.

On the other side, Mohamed Ali Farah who also had his say in the press conference stated that the disabled people have got a lot of needs to be helped and told that they are unable to have toilets in the public areas unless they go directly to the their homes.

Mohamed said, “When I have seen the growing need of the disabled people, I made my self employed to campaign in the search of their rights. Sometimes when I am in the town, if a need for a toilet arises, the only place that I can go for my issue is only my home. If we are the disabled people, we are requesting from others to take our rights into consideration and take responsibilities of them. To be disabled doesn’t mean we can’t do anything.”

The number of disabled people in Somalia is estimated nearly as 15% to 20% and one shocking fact is that only one percent of them attend the education centers. And the disabled institutions are requested to stand for the development of the disabled issues.

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Somali Disability Empowerment Network (SODEN) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that assists the mobility challenged individuals to build better lives through social integration, skill development, and useful representation in all aspects of life.Read More